Category Archives: Jan Bozarth’s Author Blog

Jan Bozarth in New Orleans

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Fairy Godmothers…

are always on the lookout for ways to help others, to become a cultural force for good. If you are near New Orleans, come to a signing, Q&A, reading and book give-away with Jan Bozarth, author and lead dreamer of the Fairy Godmother Academy. If you aren’t near New Orleans, please consider making a gift purchase of Birdie’s Book for the girls of east New Orleans. Details below…

 

BOOK SIGNING AND Q&A WITH JAN BOZARTH

February 11 from 4 to 5:30 PM

Maple Street Book Shop
7523 Maple Street, New Orleans, LA 70118 (Click here for map…)
Contact: Cindy Dike @ 504-861-2105

AUTHOR READING AND BOOK GIVEAWAY (1st 30 kids!)
February 15 at 4:30 PM

East New Orleans Branch Library
5641 Read Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70127 (Click here for map…)
Contact: Lila La Graize @ 504-596-2646

Author Jan Bozarth will make two specially-scheduled visits to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Bozarth will appear at the city’s beloved book seller Maple Street Book Shop on February 11 from 4 to 5:30 PM to sign books and answer questions about the series. On February 15 at 4:30 PM Bozarth will give a reading at the East New Orleans Branch Library, followed by a book give-away to children rebuilding their lives post-Katrina. The first 30 children to arrive will get a signed copy of Birdie’s Book.


maple street bookstore


 

Give Birdie’s Book to a New Orleans Library

It feels good to help others uncover their Wisdoms and Dreams, even if you never meet them! Please consider buying Birdie’s Book and gifting it The East New Orleans Library. 30 copies will be given to girls in attendance at Jan’s talk, and any additional copies will be in the stacks for girls who use the library. Simply go to Amazon and during checkout mark the book as gift, with the following address:

East New Orleans Branch Library
c/o: Lila La Graize
5641 Read Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70127


Birdies Book
Give this book to a fairy godmother in-the-making!

Signed Birdie’s Book Giveaway — Get one in time for Christmas!

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Get a chance to win one of five copies of Birdie’s Book, signed by author Jan Bozarth, and delivered to you before Christmas.


Birdie's Book

  1. 1. Find a fellow member to send a Friend Request. Make sure you are signed-in, then find a sampling of members at Birdie’s profile page or from the search box on the MyFriends page of your profile.
  2. 2. Send a Friend Request by clicking the (+) from a person’s profile page or search results. They don’t have to respond by the deadline for you to be eligible, you just have to send the Friend Request.
     
  3. 3. Tell us you sent the request. Make sure you are signed in, then click the “Have Code” link at the bottom of any page, and enter “DreamFriendsForever” (all one word, no quotation marks).
     

That’s It! On Monday, Dec. 14 at 6pm (CST-US) we will pick at random five members who have both entered the “DreamFriendsForever” code AND sent at least one friend request.


Birdie's Book
Jan Bozarth, and a few of the dreamers of Fairy Godmother Academy


 

Ahh, The Fine Print.

We will attempt to notify the winners at the provided email address. If we do not hear back by the 16th of December, there is a great chance your signed copy of Birdie’s Book will not arrive in time for Christmas. If you live outside the continental US there is an excellent chance it will not arrive for Christmas even if you do respond immediately. You do not increase your chances by friend requesting multiple people, but if you find a few more than one you’d like to friend, feel free to do so. You have to be a member of the Academy to send Friend Requests, but you do not have to be enrolled. To be “joined”, or to be “enrolled” (the next level up that allows social network access) is free, but enrollment instructions are only sent to members under 13 years of age.

You can of course also Buy Birdie’s Book for the tween girl in your life!

Kerka’s Animal Spirit: A Spirikin

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Dear Dreamers:

I am thrilled that the Kirkus reviewer likes Kerka’s Book! I know there are many girls like Kerka out there waiting to read her story. You have only had a small taste of Kerka from Birdie’s story, but you know she is a completely differnet kind of girl.

I wrote about Kerka from my memories of being a dancer at that same age (13). I created Kalis, a martial art/dance that uses colorful bejeweled sticks and has steps like the X Sweep and the Zephyr. In my mind it is more dance than fighting, but I also wanted girls to be able to do their own fighting with Aventurine “powers” when they needed it.

Another fun secret in Kerka’s book is the idea that every girl has an animal spirit called a Spirikin. Do you have an animal spirit? (You can have more than one.) Maybe you like cats a lot or you have a certain animal picture or stuffed animals around your room? Leave a comment to this post – tell me about your Spirikin and how you figured it out.

See you in Aventurine!
Jan

ps: You can read the Kirkus review and a chapter from the upcoming Kerka’s Book online!

Cherish Each Unique Moment

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Hello Dreamers:

Today is Halloween in the year 2009. There will only be one of this particular day in my life and so I try to pay attention to details. The Texas Book Festival show is tomorrow and a big article about the Fairy Godmother Academy will be in tomorrow morning’s paper. The air is sparkly blue like the sky. I look for something to wear that is this color of blue so I will sparkle too. The leaves on the bush by my door are my favorite color- chartreuse. I want to wear the day the way the plants and sky do. People get ready to play music in Austin where Halloween is a gigantic party. I want to immerse myself in it so I dance around the house to the songs on the radio and write a song too. I am aware of my happiness.

My Knowledge: I know it is Halloween.

My Understanding: This is the only Halloween in 2009 and the only day of my life that will have these things in just this way.

My Wisdom: Knowing when “good” cannot be better.

I Won’t Forget.

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Last Friday I spoke to 100 5th grade girls in a school outside of Houston. This was the official kick-off school event for my Birdie’s Book tour. The day before I was interviewed on Fox’s Good Day Houston. Live television is unpredictable and scary, but I got through it with a bit of humor and a stellar musical performance by 12-year-old Gabby Gillespie, who is not afraid of anything.

So I was not prepared for shaky knees and welling eyes as I stood in the back of the Alexander Elementary library watching girls file in one by one, class by class. I was deeply aware that they were the answer to the question, ” Why did I write this story?” Bad timing for a speaker to cry just before going on. This is how I know something is true to the core of my being. Tears just happen, and there is nothing I can do to compose myself. I wiped my eyes and went out there and spoke about the books and the other things I had created—for them. Continue reading →

My Interview with New Moon

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I’m very proud to have gotten a five-moon review from Raspberry at Luna’s Book Club on New Moon Girls Online. New Moon is a great site where a lot of smart, cool girls share their creative spirits.

1.) Hi Jan! As I read your book 1, I was wondering, did you have to do lots of research on plants and nature to be able to make Birdie’s love for plants come to life?

Jan: I am a gardener in my area in central Texas but also asked my sister who lives in Denver and has gardened in England to help me. We researched the area where Granny Mo lives in the book, New Jersey, to make sure the plants we chose could really grow there. But I also added fantasy plants both at Mo’s and in Aventurine and some of the plants in Mo’s green house wouldn’t ordinarily grow in that area, but Mo is magic! It would be fun to see if girls who read the book can find out which plants are real and which ones are fantasy. I also love love love trees so it was easy to imagine the Glimmer Tree and make it play a major role in the story. The natural world has always been a source of inspiration for me. It is there that I feel most alive. Continue reading →

I Am A Dreamer.

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Always have been and always will be. If it was going to get squashed out of me, it would have happened by now.

I’ve spent years song-writing, dancing, singing, and creating other expressions of inner joy and angst. About 4 years ago I realized it all had a common thread—a story I have been writing all my life. If you are on this blog, you have either read it or heard about it: The Fairy Godmother Academy. I first saw the world of these books in a series of lucid dreams that started when I was about 9 years old. My dream world was colored a certain way—oranges with shooting beams of light and greens so beautiful they hurt the eyes. There were houses with strange rooms and many doors and windows from which to choose. I saw gardens and plants that may or may not exist in your world.

I flew a lot.

And I levitated when the menacing black cat was about to attack.
I heard songs that I brought back to the daytime world.
I worked out real life issues in dreamtime.
I had powers there.
And I could still feel these powers sometimes in the twilight of waking.

I journaled all of this from age thirteen on. This is how I tended my “little flame”—my creative spirit. Do you remember your dreams? How do you nurture your little flame, your creativity?